Magic Roundabout in the news !

If you want more information about OceansWatch and the work that we are doing, here is a nice article about our projects in the South Pacific sailing Magic Roundabout yacht :

Cruising sailors off on new round of South Pacific Islands assistance

OceansWatch is an international organisation started in New Zealand who seek to help South Pacific Island communities deal with growing pollution and climate change. They have just started their new round of voyages for 2013, and there is room for you to help. Here is the first report:

The two OceansWatch yachts, Magic Roundabout and Cat Knapp have left Port Vila, Vanuatu, to begin their work with communities. Our projects in Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands will assist them in managing their marine resources, support sustainable livelihood projects and provide environmental education.

Over the last week and a half the crews have been trained by Glenn Edney in the 'Reef Check' method of monitoring coral reefs as well as OceansWatch's 'Reef Guardian' training program. The 'Reef Guardian' program is used to train the locals to monitor their own reefs. It is a more qualitative approach that has shown good correlation with scientific methods but is closer and more acceptable to traditional fisheries management.

Cat Knapp, with Glenn, Shelly Feduniw, Amick Haissoune and Jordan Smith-Newman has headed to Northern Vanuatu and their first port of call will be Esprito Santo where they will update Northern Fisheries Officer, Alsen Obed with this year's itinerary.

Our other yacht, Magic Roundabout, with Chris Bone, Helen Beswick, Shannon Hurley, Paula Anton Codin and Carla Deane has headed to Lata in the Solomon Islands. Lata is the provincial capital of the Temotu Province and we will inform the local government and fisheries department of the projects we will be involved in before heading to the Reef Islands.

We have several other cruising yachts joining us in the Solomon Islands this year and some of these have been very helpful in assisting us to carry first aid supplies provided by Medical Aid Abroad to be given to the communities.

One of these yachts, 'Anna Rose,' will be used by another OceansWatch team later in the season to visit the Duff Islands and Vanikoro.

Below are Jon and Nia Mora who will be leaving New Zealand aboard their yacht, Only Child, and heading to the Solomon Islands with first aid boxes to be given to the villages. Thanks to them and the others who are helping in this way.

If you want more information about OceansWatch and the work that they are doing, go to their website: www.oceanswatch.org.

Solomon Islands with Anna Rose

We are happy to introduce you the new yacht we will be sailing for our next expedition to the Solomon Islands : Anna Rose.

Many thanks to the generosity of Simon and Rosie, a couple of cruising sailors from the UK who gave us the opportunity to use their sailing yacht on OceansWatch' expedition.

During the last few day, OceansWatch's crew and Simon and Rosie have been working towards a smooth handover of the boat.

The expedition starts on September 3rd with sailing from Honiara to the Fenualoa (Solomons Islands) to work on our different projects to follow our vision of "Saving the Ocean – one reef at a time".

The team will be training Reef Guardians in Fenualoa.
Our Reef Guardian program is a key component of how we work at village level. This program educates and empowers a team of local conservation minded fishermen to monitor the health of their marine ecosystem and guide their community on how to ensure the sustainability of the resource. The aim of the Reef Guardian programme is to train community members in simple monitoring techniques (using transects) to count key indicator fish and invertebrate species as well as substrate identification and percentage of cover.

Team will be also working on a pilot program of coconut oil production by the local women in 5 villages of Fenualoa. This pilot program is designed to test the equipment ang gauge enthusiam for the project. In each village we shall encourage the formation of a woman's co-operative to work with us to develop the project.

The coconut oil will be bought from them and will be brought to New Zealand where it is available for buying. For more information have a look on the project here.

Looking forward to sail Anna Rose to continue to lead all our projects.

Comments

Vanuatu expedition

31 July 2011 | Vanuatu

We are now blogging on the OceansWatch website www.oceanswatch.org but it is great to be part of this OceansWatch team here at sailblogs and invite all sailors who care for the environment and who want to share their trips to join us.

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Direction Home!

20 December 2009 | Mooloolaba to Opua

Simon & Caitlin

7th to 17th December 2009.
New mob Simon, Elliot and Caitlin got on board from Mooloolaba and headed south to Brisbane. Cleared out and headed to sea in strong northerly conditions - made for a rough trip up Moreton Bay and then pointed her ESE for the top of New Zealand and a fast and rough few days on the Magic Roundabout. Early evening saw Sirius in the port shrouds and that was our course for a beautiful sailing trip highlighted by turtle, whale, sharks, flying fish, mahi mahi, sun sets and rises, clear night, new moon, milky way skies, phosphorescent night dolphins, glassy sets of great southern swell and shades of blue so beautiful Caitlin wanted to eat them! One glassy day in the middle of the Tasman had us motoring before the wind came back up from the south and we were hard on the wind headed for Cape Reinga and down the coast to Opua. Thanks to OceansWatch and the Magic Roundabout who handled very well. We were really happy to be able to contribute to this the last leg of the trip for the 2009 season and look forward to getting involved again in the future. So it's Merry Christmas, Fair Winds and Following seas to you all. Si and Caitlin.

Comments

Mooloolaba, end of trip

18 December 2009 | Mooloolaba

Chris Bone

We had a great sail down to Mooloolaba, a fitting end to a fantastic trip  Thanks to the Mooloolaba Marina for giving us a free berth for the duration of our stay. Rightfully it's a popular stop for the overseas yachts. A short walk to town, easy entrance, lovely beach just 5 minutes walk away and it looks like there are plenty of services around town. Only problem is that you cannot clear Customs here.

As usual we were very busy, Ms Outreach (Katherine) visited every yacht for miles and braved shark infested waters in the kayak to do so. We had several visits from new and potential members and were helped a lot as usual by Julia and Roger Watson, parents of 16 year old Jessica Watson (OceansWatch member) who has now completed 7,000 miles of her round the world voyage.

Chris and Irene had a very fruitful visit to the University of Queensland. We discussed assisting them with specimen collection from remote Islands and giving their students some field experience. They may be able advise us on our surveying methods, especially how we can select Marine Protected Areas.

Highlight of the trip was the annual "Dress your boat for Christmas" competition. We had a ringside seat as the boats paraded in front of Magic Roundabout. We were inspired to put up lights and a Christmas Tree.
We said our sad goodbyes, most of which will be temporary we hope. Chris headed home to his family for a long overdue reunion. Anna carried on her holiday in Australia. Irene carried on with OceansWatch work, having meetings in Brisbane, Byron Bay and Sydney and Katherine headed south with an old friend but will be back at the OceansWatch Office by February.

Comments

Sandy Straights/Tin Can Bay/Wide Bay Bar

30 November 2009

Katherine

Having seen pictures in the Cruising Helmsman of boats not having such great luck crossing the Wide Bay Bar (some completely out of the water), we approached with trepidation and fully prepared. Frank and Natalie followed us in Menja not far behind, and once safely over, we could relax a little and were able to take pictures of each other under full sail. Look at Magic Roundabout go!

Comments

Great Sandy Straights Marina

30 November 2009

Katherine

Nov 23-24
Another impromptu stop brought us to Great Sandy Straights Marina, Urangan. While the marina would not offer us free berthage, Lianne (also owns Paolo's Pizza Bar) joined OceansWatch and thanks to Chris's major charm, covered our fees herself. We picked up a new member, John King, and caught up with Natalie and OceansWatch member Frank (of Norway) to caravan through the straights (above)! After brochuring the three marinas in Urangan, and like true twenty-somethings, Irene and I went very far out of our way to see the new Twilight movie while Chris was working on a cracked forehatch.

Permanant skipper Chris is a professional yacht skipper and runs a yacht delivery company- Pacific Yacht Deliveries. He has been an environmental activist for many years, including 2 years as a skipper for Greenpeace on the yacht Vega. [...]His background also includes organic farming and consulting, and marine marketing consultancy.
Cleo, from Belgium is a recent Marine Biology graduate interested in using her newly aquired skills on conservation focused projects. Alison, from the UK, has a very diverse resume so brings a very valuable range of skills to the project. With only 4 on the yacht and at least 15 job descriptions to fill everyone on board has to be multi talented. Alison's core qualification are in environmental science. She has an M.Sc in Marine Environmental Protection.

The long term use of Magic Roundabout was donated to OceansWatch to carry out Marine conservation and provide humanitarian aid to the coastal communities in the Pacific. OceansWatch has set up an ongoing training system for yachties and divers to monitor reef health throughout the Pacific using the [...]

established Reef Check and Coralwatch systems. We are working at the request and in conjunction with the local communities and the national fisheries of Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and PNG. We will provide transport, training and education and help communities establish and mark Locally Managed Marine Areas (LMMAs) in these countries.
OceansWatch is also engaged in other marine area projects in the Solomon islands sailing Cat Knapp yacht & Anna Rose yacht.

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In close co-operation with the world's yachting community OceansWatch undertakes marine conservation projects and undertakes humanitarian aid in developing countries.
To join OceansWatch visit www.oceanswatch.org